Our team of experts continually monitor, assess and ask questions, so they can give consumers, professionals and health and care bodies across the world accurate, impartial and up to date advice on finding the best apps.

Here, we pick the most significant market developments from over the past month:

• mHealth 2030 Report – 10 years ago, the iPhone was just 3 years old, only 25% of us owned a smartphone, and the term mHealth was first coined. We asked worldwide leaders from across mHealth: what will the next decade bring? What will apps deliver by 2030? What will be the biggest barriers faced by the industry? Click here to read the report.
• Humber Launches Health & Care App Library – ORCHA has partnered with NHS organisations across the Humber to launch the Humber Health App Store, designed to help local residents find clinically assured, safe and secure apps to help monitor their health and well-being. Read more here and access the App Library at https://humber.orcha.co.uk/.
• Digital Health Hubs – Good Things Foundation is running a three-year programme called Widening Digital Participation funded by NHS Digital, creating better health for a divided nation through their new Digital Health Hubs. Hear more in this video and learn about how Good Things Foundation are doing co-design in health by clicking here.
• Picking the right healthcare app – the data science way – We are working with the Hartree Centre to explore data-driven techniques to speed up our mHealth App Review process, such as automating the data collection process. Read more about our approach and access the full case study by clicking here.
• Which FemTech Apps can you Trust? – With only 15% of femtech apps meeting quality thresholds, which ones can be trusted? Take a look at our article on identifying safe, clinically assured femtech apps, published by Medical Plastics News, by clicking here.

If you want to attend an event to stay abreast of the market, we recommend attending:

• mHealth App Developer Workshop – Geared especially towards innovators working in mHealth, ORCHA and Medilink West Midlands’ workshop on 4th March aims to give app developers clear guidance on how they can prepare for and conform to the new EU medical device regulations (MDR). Presenters include ORCHA’s COO, and representatives from NHS Digital. Click here read more.
• Digital Health Technology Show – Held on the 10th and 11th March, the Digital Health Technology Show showcases health and technology’s heavyweights and empowers healthcare delegates. Focussing on patient-centric care, the Show will help to explain how technology will relieve some of the pressures on our healthcare system. In the Health 4.0 theatre, ORCHA’s Liz Ashall-Payne will speak on ‘The future of personalised healthcare’ panel on the 10th, and will present on ‘How apps are changing the face of healthcare’ on the 11th. Find out more here.
• Naidex – Join us at Naidex on 17th & 18th March in Birmingham, where ORCHA CEO, Liz Ashall-Payne, will be presenting on ‘Determining and Evaluating the Quality of Health Apps’. Naidex is Europe’s most established event dedicated to the independent living and healthcare industries. Find out more and register for your free tickets here.
• SEHTA International MedTech Expo – ORCHA will be sponsoring SEHTA’s 2020 International MedTech Expo & Conference, which is taking place on 26th March at Hilton London Tower Bridge Hotel. The SME focused healthcare event aims to drive collaborations between Business, Care & Clinicians & Academics. Find out more and register your interest by clicking here.

Want to know more about ORCHA? Watch this two minute video to find out more about our testing process and how we work with 25% of NHS organisations and health bodies worldwide to unlock the power of digital health!

Have you seen our webinar about building an App Library for people living with dementia?

Whilst the uptake of Digital Health solutions is growing, evidence shows that not all who can benefit from these solutions are being reached. Health and social care professionals, as well as patients, aren’t aware that condition-specific apps exist, and when they do look for them, with no guidelines or regulations, they don’t know which to trust.

Soo Hun, Programme Manager, Digital Health & Care NI, Health and Social Care Board, and Andy Jeans, Implementations Manager, ORCHA, discuss how Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Board approached the development of a new digital service offering support to people living with dementia and their carers.

Soo shares her experience and insights on their NI journey thus far – how the idea of an Apps Library came about, how HSC worked with ORCHA to implement it, the involvement of people living with dementia and their carers throughout the development of the Library, getting the buy-in from healthcare professionals, some early results seen to-date, and future plans.

View the webinar slides by clicking on the image below, or listen to the recorded webinar via the video link.